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In Decision of First Impression, Court Decides 'Gap Grants' Can Be Terminated Under §203 of U.S. Copyright Act

In the 1976 Copyright Act, Congress inserted a termination right for authors or their successors for pre-January 1, 1978, assignments of copyrighted works. However, the legislators didn't directly address a key issue: how to determine termination rights for what are known as "gap grant" works — that is, those created post-1977 under copyright assignments made before then.

5 minute read September 01, 2020 at 12:15 AM
By
Stan Soocher
In Decision of First Impression, Court Decides 'Gap Grants' Can Be Terminated Under §203 of U.S. Copyright Act

In the 1976 Copyright Act, Congress inserted a termination right for authors or their successors for pre-January 1, 1978, assignments of copyrighted works (see, 17 U.S.C. §304) and for post-1977 copyright-assignment grants (see, 17 U.S.C. §203).

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